Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoKyle Robertson | DispatchFrom left, Rep. Andrew Thompson, Speaker William G. Batchelder and Rep. Matt Huffman listen to testimony on House Bill 597. The bill is designed to eliminate Common Core education standards in Ohio.

Supporters and opponents of Common Core education standards swarmed the Statehouse today as a
House committee heard a second day of testimony on a bill to dump Ohio’s new guidelines for what
students should know.

“House Bill 597 will totally disrupt and reverse the progress that has been made in classrooms
across Ohio,” Stephanie Hightower, president and chief executive officer of the Columbus Urban
League, said at a press conference outside the hearing.

“Our children don’t deserve to have our elected officials play politics with their futures.”

Hightower resigned as president of the Columbus School Board in 2005 after pulling her son from
the district and sending him to private school.

“The reason why I took my kid out of public school and resigned my position with the school
board at the time was because we didn’t have these kinds of standards in place to ensure that my
son could then go on to college and be successful in college.”

Common Core supporters say Ohio’s new standards for math and English/language arts move away
from shallow learning and memorization and encourage students to do more critical thinking and
problem solving. Such skills, they say, will better prepare students for college and careers.

The Ohio Board of Education adopted the standards in 2010, and local school districts and
teachers have spent four years developing curriculum, selecting materials and tailoring
instructional methods to accompany them.

House Bill 597 would keep Common Core for this school year but nix the corresponding student
testing. Schools would then switch for the next two years to standards used in Massachusetts before
it adopted Common Core. Meanwhile, the Ohio Board of Education would develop new state standards to
use in the 2017-2018 school year.

The House Rules Committee heard more testimony this morning from Common Core opponents including
Kathleen Neiheisel of Kettering, who has taught for 30 years in the Cincinnati and Centerville
schools. She criticized a math lesson that, she said, is counted as correct even though the answer
is wrong.

“If you want excellence, have materials and guidelines that support excellence. Common Core is a
C level academic standard, and touted by Common Core enthusiasts as creating the worker of
tomorrow,” she said.

“The curriculum controlled by parents and educators at a local level gave Americans 200 years of
exceptionalism.”

Sarah Fowler, a state school board member from Rock Creek, said “as my constituents become more
informed, many are expressing outrage at the obliteration of local control and personal
privacy."

Fowler, a home-school graduate, said that over the past two years she has run across few
teachers who support Common Core. But most, she said, are afraid to speak out in opposition over
fear of being fired.

Rep. Debbie Philips, D-Albany, said she can’t imagine a scenario where a teacher would be fired
for expressing an opinion about state policy.

Melissa Cropper, president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers, said teachers absolutely have a
right to speak out. While a few may not like the standards, the vast majority have embraced them,
she said, noting that teachers’ views are being misrepresented in the hearings.

Classrooms in every corner of this state have worked to develop curriculum, select materials and
tailor instructional methods, Cropper said.

“None of this comes from the federal government as those who misunderstand Common Core have
stated. Do not let those who are politically motivated or who simply do not understand this
opportunity continue to generate fear and confusion."

Gov. John Kasich agreed.

Kasich said after a campaign stop in Beavercreek that the standards Ohio now has were not
crafted in Washington, D.C. or in Columbus.